Coolers are commonly used to keep food and drinks cool on picnics, camping trips, beach trips, and other excursions where conventional refrigeration is not a feasible option. Traditional coolers (i.e., “ice chests”) were box-shaped and had a galvanized exterior. Over time, coolers came to have hard plastic exteriors. But hard-body coolers are often inconvenient because their fixed shape can make them difficult to stow or transport. Further, such hard-body coolers can be difficult for an individual to carry. As a result, soft-body coolers became a popular alternative. But while soft-body coolers can be easier to stow or transport, they often fail to provide the same performance as a hard-body cooler. In particular, soft-body coolers have a tendency to leak and sweat, and they are generally incapable of providing the same temperature-maintaining functionality as a hard-body cooler. And often, soft-body coolers lack insulation on the top of the cooler, therefore severely decreasing the cooler's temperature maintenance properties. Further, soft-body coolers have inadequate zipper mechanisms that tend to pull away or tear out easily from the body of the soft-body cooler. Moreover, these zipper mechanisms are assembled in such a way as to have holes that decrease the cooler's insulating capabilities.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved soft-body coolers to address the above-mentioned deficiencies. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to these and other considerations.